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Monday, April 18, 2011

Temple!

Hello!

Time just keeps flying by! I can´t believe that I only have a week and a half left. It is very strange because my companion is more ¨baggy¨ (trunky as they say in most missions) than I am. It has been an interesting week. On Monday, we ate a big breakfast and since my companion made most of it, we ate it is the latin way: everything fried. After I ate I did not feel good. But we went throughout the whole day and we went to buy everything we needed. When we were at the grocery store, I felt terrible and all the food made me feel worse. When we finally got home, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. I think it was from eating so much fried things. The nurse told us to take it easy and on tuesday morning I felt just fine. But then on Wednesday I got a cold and on Thursday I could barely talk. But now I feel just fine again. Many return missionaries says that it is normal to get sick before going home because of all the stress. But I feel just fine again.

Yesterday we had 2 baptisms of Cindy and Jorge who are brothers. Cindy is 18 and Jorge 8 years old. Hermana Ena told us that Cindy was telling the whole world that she was going to get baptized and that she is going to be a missionary. That makes us happy. We were going to have 4 baptisms yesterday but that is another story.

Hermano Elmer has stopped smoking! He now has a week and a half of not smoking. We are so proud of him but he just thanks God saying that he knows that he was freed from captivity (Mosiah 7:33). So we were so happy. His wife said that she wasn´t ready to get baptized but Hermano Elmer and Pablito (8 years old) were good to go. They even had their interviews. But on Thursday night, Hermano Elmer called and thanked us for everything that we had done and that they didn´t want to continue receiving us. That was a terrible night. We had an appointment for the next day so we started praying and fasting to be able to know what to say and do. The zone leaders went with us and Hermano Elmer started to say how he didn´t want his wife to be obligated to the church and that they need to be united and how he was baptized in the Catholic church as a baby (and we have talked about this about a million times) and he was just so confused. Then his wife said that she has always been supportive and so if he wants to get baptized, then he needed to do it but the worst thing to do would to not get baptized just because she didn´t feel ready. Then we talked about the authority, baptism by immersion, the example of Jesus Christ, the restored gospel and so on. The spirit was so strong and at the end, Elmer said that he wanted to get baptized especially to be an example for his own family. It was such a great experience and we were so grateful that God heard our prayers and answered them. So we were so excited! When we went back on Saturday afternoon (they were going to get baptized on Sunday) Hermano Elmer had chicken pox! And he had a fever and felt terrible. It has been the week of diseases. So that is why they didn´t get baptized. It was not because they weren´t willing or ready, but because it is chicken pox time and everyone has chicken pox. Luckily I have already had chicken pox and so it doesn´t
affect our work. But we are planning on having the baptisms this weekend if they feel better.

Today we went to the dentist for the last time for Hermana Izaguirre (we have been about 4 or 5 times) and while we were in Santa Tecla, we stopped by the temple. It is absolutely gorgeous. It was exciting to see it again and this time without scaffolding! So I am sending you pictures of the temple as is today. Here we are starting the ¨semana santa¨ or holy week. People always say it is the hottest time of the year, and it really has been hot here. Today has been a bit cloudy so we are trying to soak in this break from the son.

Yesterday we also had stake conference so I got to see a lot of people from my first area and they were all happy to see me. I will miss Chalchuapa and I have passed more than half of my mission in the stake. I still have one more pday left!